CTE Credentials / Work Based Learning

Credentials Earned

Highlights

Record Level: Student by Year by Credential
Population: Students in the Michigan Career and Technical Education system
Records per Year: 27,000-45,000
Years Covered: 2020-Present

Description

While enrolled in a CTE program students may earn various types of credentials. The CTE Credentials Earned dataset includes information on the credential name, vendor, and approval status of every credential earned by a student. 

The Office of Career and Technical Education (OCTE) has a process for evaluating credentials and determining whether they meet certain criteria to be considered “state-approved”. In addition to “approved”, the other credential types in this dataset are “suggested”, “supplementary”, “postsecondary”, and “license”. 

The process for officially approving credentials and requiring that schools report them was done CIP code by CIP code over several years. Credentials that are classified as “suggested” before official review may become “approved” afterwards, so it is crucial that researchers consult the schedule to know which year a CIP code went through the approval process and understand changes in credential classifications. 

Credential attainment rates are one of the Perkins V Core Performance Indicators. The rate is calculated based on credentials earned by CTE concentrators who have graduated from high school. As a result, while schools are encouraged to update the credential records for all of their students every June, some administrators may wait to input all of the credentials a student has earned until after they reach graduation. For this reason, it is not advised to use the “year received” variable to try to determine exactly when a student earned a credential and it is best to wait until after a student has graduated to consider their records complete.

User Input

School administrators have been inputting the credential names, vendors, and types using a write-in text box. The raw string variables are very messy, with many misspellings, errors, and instances of several credentials being typed in as one entry. Starting in SY 2025-26, administrators will select the approved credentials from a drop-down menu, which should create more consistency in spelling and entry. For approved credentials and some common “supplementary” credentials, the information will become more standardized. Researchers using older data are advised to closely review and clean the string variables.